1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which forms an image on a paper.
2. Description of Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, papers which are ejected after an image is formed are mounted on a paper ejection tray. When the mounting amount reaches the maximum mounting amount of the paper ejection tray, the image forming itself is once stopped in the image forming apparatus or the paper ejection is switched to a different paper ejection tray.
In the case where the image forming itself is stopped once, the operation rate of the image forming apparatus declines while the image forming is stopped. Because the image forming does not restart unless a user takes out the mounted papers from the paper ejection tray, a user has to always check the mounting amount when the image forming is carried out continuously. Further, in case where the paper ejection is switched to a different paper ejection tray, it is cumbersome because a user has to collect the mounted papers from each of the different paper ejection trays.
For the above problems, a method for calculating and displaying the time needed to reach the maximum mounting amount of the paper election tray from the present mounting amount of the paper ejection tray so that a user can easily check the mounting amount of the paper ejection tray is disclosed (for example, see JP2004-175513A). Further, there is an image forming apparatus in which the ejection amount for one job is calculated in the image forming apparatus and the paper ejection tray which can house all the calculated amount of ejected paper is determined and output so that the papers of one job are to be ejected to the same paper ejection tray (for example, see JP5-155511A).
However, in the method of above described JP2004-175513A, the mounting amount of only one of the paper ejection trays is displayed and only the time needed for the paper ejection tray to reach the maximum mounting amount after the execution of the actual image forming is started can be known. In such way, the over all mounting status cannot be known when there are a plurality of paper ejection trays, and a user cannot select the appropriate paper ejection tray when a user herself/himself is selecting the paper ejection tray.
Moreover, in the method according to JP5-155511A, a user cannot confirm to which paper ejection tray the papers are to be ejected before the image forming because the image forming apparatus automatically assigns where the papers are to be ejected.
Further, a user herself/himself cannot select the paper ejection tray to which she/he desires the papers to be ejected.